I bought an Opteka 6.5mm circular fisheye lens from Amazon recently. The following image is one of the actual product photos featured on Amazon.
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| Opteka 6.5mm circular fisheye lens product photo on Amazon. |
The next image is a photo of the lens that I received from Opteka/Amazon.
| Opteka 6.5mm circular fisheye lens mounted on Fujifilm X-T5. |
Hmm, what's wrong with this picture? (Remember that type of children's puzzle?) Look closely at the focus ring in both images. The lenses shown in the two images are similar but not identical, and the difference is critical. Unlike the product photos on Amazon there aren't any distance numbers (ft and m) marked on the focus ring of the Opteka lens that was delivered to me.
Instead of distance numbers the focus ring is marked "←Near" "Far→" and "∞" (infinity). The "←Near" label on the focus ring turns far to the left of the index mark on the lens barrel, presumably beginning at the closest focusing distance of the lens; the "∞" label also turns far to the left of the index mark. That's right, the Opteka lens focuses "to infinity and beyond." Way beyond.
Both Opteka and Amazon are guilty of false advertising.
"False advertising is any published claim or statement used to promote a product or service that is untruthful, deceptive, or misleading to a reasonable consumer." Source Credit: Google AI Overview.
In my strong opinion Opteka and Amazon should carefully consider offering some form of restitution other than simply returning the lens for a full refund. I'm open to suggestion.
The Backstory
I bought the Opteka 6.5mm circular fisheye lens because it's available for Fujifilm X Mount camera bodies while the comparable Meike version is no longer available.
"Opteka frequently rebrands and sells lenses produced by other Chinese and Korean manufacturers, including Meike and Samyang (Rokinon)." Source Credit: Google AI Overview.
Question is does the Opteka lens perform as well as the Meike? I don't know, yet.
I would like to be able to recommend the Opteka lens as a viable option to replace the Meike lens. First I need to do some field testing to see how the Opteka lens performs. (Limited studio testing is inconclusive so far.)
For now my recommendation is "buyer beware -- what you see is not what you get!" You might call the product photos on Amazon an "Optekal Illusion," but seriously, false advertising is an egregious matter.
Related Resource: Posts on Walter Sanford's Blog with the label "all sky."
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